To give female academics and others focused on ai their well-deserved (and long-awaited) time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on notable women who have contributed to the ai revolution. We will publish these articles throughout the year as the rise of ai continues, highlighting key work that often goes unnoticed. Read more profiles here.
Tara Chklovski is the CEO and founder of Technonovation, a nonprofit organization that helps teach young women about technology and entrepreneurship. She has led the company for the past 17 years, finding ways to help young women use technology to solve some of the world's most pressing problems. She attended St. Stephen's College in Delhi, before earning a master's degree from Boston University and a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Briefly, how did you get started in ai? What attracted you to the field?
I started learning about ai in 2016 when we were invited to the AAAI (Association for the Advancement of artificial intelligence) Conference held in San Francisco, and we had the opportunity to interview a variety of ai researchers who use ai to address interesting problems ranging from space to actions. Technovation is a non-profit organization and our mission is to bring the most powerful, cutting-edge tools and technologies to the most underserved communities. The ai felt powerful and right. So I decided to learn a lot about it!
We conducted a national survey of parents in 2017, asking them about their thoughts and concerns about ai, and were surprised how African American mothers were very interested in bringing ai literacy to their children, more so than any other demographic group. Then we launched the first global ai education program: the ai Family Challengebacked by Google and Nvidia.
We've continued to learn and iterate since then, and are now the only global project-based ai education program with a research-based curriculum translated into 12 languages.
What work are you most proud of in the field of ai?
The fact that we are the only organization that has a peer-reviewed research paper on the impact of our project-based ai curriculum and that we have been able to bring it to tens of thousands of girls around the world.
How do you address the challenges of the male-dominated tech industry and, by extension, the male-dominated ai industry?
It's hard. We have many allies, but power and influence typically falls to CEOs, who are often men and do not fully empathize with the barriers women face at every step. You become the CEO of a billion-dollar company based on certain characteristics, and these characteristics may not be the same ones that allow you to empathize with others.
As for solutions, society is becoming more educated and both genders are becoming more sophisticated in empathy, mental health, psychological development, etc. My advice to those who support women in technology would be to be bolder in your investments so we can make further progress. We have enough research and data to know what works. We need more defenders and defenders.
What advice would you give to women looking to enter the field of ai?
Start today. It's very easy to start playing online with free, top-notch lectures and courses. Find a problem that is interesting to you and start learning and developing. The Technovation curriculum is also a great starting point as it requires no prior technical knowledge and at the end you will have created an ai-based startup.
What are some of the most pressing issues facing ai as it evolves?
(Society views) underserved groups as a monolithic group with no voice, agency or talent, simply waiting to be exploited. In fact, we've found that teenage girls are some of the earliest adopters of technology and have the best ideas. A team of girls from Technovation created a ride-sharing and taxi-hailing app in December 2010. Another team from Technovation created a mindfulness and concentration app in March 2012. Today, Technovation teams are creating apps based on artificial intelligence and creating new data sets focused on groups in India, Africa and Latin America, groups that are not included in the applications coming out of Silicon Valley.
Instead of seeing these countries simply as markets, consumers and recipients, we must see these groups as powerful collaborators who can help ensure that we are building truly innovative solutions to the complex problems facing humanity.
What are some of the issues that ai users should consider?
These technologies are advancing rapidly. Be curious and look under the hood as much as possible to learn how these models work. This will help you become a curious and hopefully informed user.
What is the best way to develop ai responsibly?
Training groups that are not normally part of design and engineering teams, and then building better technologies with them as co-designers and builders. It doesn't take much longer and the final product will be much more robust and innovative for the process.
How can investors better drive responsible ai?
Drive collaborations with global nonprofits that have access to diverse talent pools so your engineers speak to a broad set of users and incorporate their perspectives.
